The aesthetic of this infographic feels appropriate right from the start — strong shadows, rough typography, a concrete-like background, and barbed wire imagery evoke prison before we even get past the title.

I love the creative data viz in the “Maximum Prison Sentence” section. Taking a prison line-up and turning it into an expression of prison sentences is a fun and relevant way to incorporate data visualization here. The rifle data viz is also effective.

Because illustration is kept quite minimal and is mostly silhouettes, this infographic is a good example of how blending photography and some illustration can be effective. We usually advise against it if the two are trying to compete with one another, but since the illustration is understated it works here without being distracting.

I did notice one little typo — at the top, in the list of states, “DIstrict of Columbia” should be “District of Columbia” (the first “i” in “District” was erroneously capitalized). Also, technically D.C. isn’t a state, so it could use a bit of clarification there.

In all I’d give this infographic an A — it’s informative, brief, and keeps text fairly short with ample data viz. Just be sure to proofread everything before publishing!